Police: Colorado theater victims' families harassed

Thursday, April 11, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- An Oregon man has been accused of harassing at least a dozen families of the victims of the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., telling them the killings didn't happen or the caskets of victims were empty.

Kevin Purfield of Portland was to be arraigned Thursday on telephone harassment and stalking counts, both misdemeanors.

He was adept online at finding ways to make contact with the family members, and used email, social media and phone calls to get to them, said Aurora police spokesman Frank Fania.

Then Purfield spun fantastic theories, Fania said.

"It starts out that the shootings didn't really happen," Fania said. "It goes into things such as that at the funeral your relative's body wasn't in the casket."

Sometimes, if he didn't get a rise out of a relative, he dropped the communication, Fania said. In other cases, and particularly if the relative responded, Purfield launched into vile, obscene "flat-out attacks," Fania said.

The attacks changed the communications into harassment, he said.

Fania said the family members were in several states, and Oregon authorities were brought into an investigation in February.

Portland police said they'd had previous contacts with Purfield, including one instance Sgt. Pete Simpson described as a "mental health hold."

Purfield, 45, was arrested and booked Wednesday. Bail was set at $10,000. It wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer.